So I turned up to Nantwich by myself at around 3.30 last Saturday. Rob hadn’t told me when he was arriving back with his girlfriend so I made the most of the time by myself and grabbed the washing machine to attack my stack of disgustingly sweaty clothes! Seriously, where did all this heat come from?!?
I did a bit of food shopping, had a nice chill out in front of the television, and started pondering how I was going to spend my evening. And then it came to me, I was going to make a film! I won’t give it away, but I think it’s quite funny... it’s on my YouTube channel if you fancy a view.
Sunday rolled by in a non-eventful blur, and before I knew it, we were back to Monday morning. And what a way to start the week! We entered the morning’s school and I had my usual nosey snoop around. It turned out that a few months before David Cameron had visited! The headmistress came into the hall when we were setting up, and was chatting to Rob when I heard her say “And you’re opening our library for us aren’t you”??? The school had redeveloped their library and they had decided that it would be a fabulous idea if we would cut the ribbon to open it after performing our show. We were sweaty messes but we did as we were asked, but the children didn’t even seem to fussed by it! We had also kicked off their school reading week so most of them were dressed as characters from their favourite books, including one teacher dressed up as Darth Vader!
We left the school and promptly got stuck in a massive traffic jam. We were headed to Birmingham and got stuck on the always fun m6. We did make it on time for the afternoon show, and had about ten minutes to spare before we had to go in. Rob stopped at a garage to get some snacks while I waited in the van. A man came round the corner and walked down the street towards the van, looking as in with a strange look on his face. He stopped about three feet away from the van and undid the button and zip on his trousers and started pulling them down. At this point I was seriously freaking out, my hand was clutching the door handle as tightly as I could, and thankfully I was wearing my sunglasses so that he couldn’t see the absolute terror in my eyes. It turned out that he had another pair of trousers on underneath and he was getting some money out of the pocket! Another typical overreaction from Natalie! Off we went to the school and immediately I wanted to be back at home! On one of the hottest days of the tour so far we ended up in a hall with no windows, with the worst behaved children ever! I saw one teacher manhandling a boy out of the hall because he was being disruptive and kicking on his way, and the kids were just walking around the hall whenever they felt like it! I was so relieved when we finished! I think we actually raced home that night, after a quick and sneaky ice cream from a petrol station!
Tuesday took us to Shrewsbury. I don’t really remember much about the morning show, but we weren’t very far away from the afternoon show and had a nice long lunch. We decided to go for a walk around the town, but Rob got bored after literally about five minutes and went back to the van. I persevered and found some nice shops, bought myself a lovely skirt, and trailed around a bit longer trying to find anywhere that could sell me Heat magazine! After my most important purchase was made(!), I found my way back to the van, read through the glossy pages for about ten minutes before it was time to go. I turned the key but nothing happened. I tried it again but still nothing worked. The battery light stayed on so that to me was the obvious problem. I would like to point out at this point that Rob had said the previous day that we needed to be careful about having the radio on for too long when the engine wasn’t running as he’d done that before on a tour and drained the battery so the van wouldn’t start. When I’d come back with my trashy mag ready to go, the radio was on and the fans were blowing out semi-cold air so my obvious assumption was that they had been going for a while and had drained it. I phoned the afternoon school and told them that we couldn’t get the van started and that we would be with them as soon as we could... annoyingly we were about 5 minutes around the corner! Rob begrudgingly phoned the bosses, and subsequently the breakdown people, and then began the waiting game. We were sat waiting to be rescued for about two hours. I sat outside, took the straps of my top down and tried to catch a bit of colour whilst reading the rest of my magazine. Eventually Rob received the phone call saying that a man was on his way to us, and surely enough, ten minutes later the big shiny orange van rolled up the street and promptly drove straight past us! We were parked in a tiny car park that was immediately next to a huge car park that he thought we were in. Rob decided to chase him on foot (obviously!) but the man got to me before Rob could flag him down, and Rob didn’t re-appear for a good five minutes afterwards! As nice as it was to have the afternoon off, I felt that I could have spent it in a much better place than a Shrewsbury car park, and the breakdown man wouldn’t shut up! He was very good and efficient in sorting our problem but he kept talking and talking and talking, when all we wanted to do was go home! We’d almost got home when we received a phone call from the bosses telling us to go and get a new battery for the van. So after a quick stop at home to wash my hands and have a cheeky snack, we set out to find one! Our second attempt took us to a Halfords where we were faced with a choice of three different batteries with varying materials. Knowing nothing about Transit van batteries, we just shrugged and pointed to the middle one! We asked if the man helping us could fit it for us, and after five minutes of searching under the bonnet, we found the battery underneath the driver’s seat, only for him to say that the batteries they had were probably too small for what we needed. I made the decision to leave it and wait til the next day, the bosses were due to come to see the show so they could make the decision for us!
So Wednesday appeared! It was a day I decided to call ‘Double Boss Day’. Current boss Brian arrived at the morning school at the same time as us, helped us to unload and then took the van to get a replacement battery. He didn’t think he’d be back in time to see the show but he turned up about ten minutes before we started. The battery had been checked and there was nothing wrong with it so he came straight back and saved a bundle! We did the show, probably putting in a bit more effort than usual because he was there(!), but we were slightly concerned. He seemed to have a face like thunder all the way through the performance and we didn’t know why! We were working our arses off. But we needn’t have worried, he absolutely loved it! He raved on to us for ages about how wonderful we are (obviously! Haha!)
There wasn’t much of a journey between schools so we found a supermarket and settled down for lunch. I made the most of my time by watching the beautiful topless men of Stoke going in and out of the shop! We arrived at the second school to find my ex-boss Barry outside! I invited him along for a chat and to see if he wanted to see the show. It turned out that the school we were at was his old primary school and he got a nice tour around from one of the teachers which I’m sure he loved!
I have no idea what happened on Thursday. Some days you just wake up and have nothing to say. Which is precisely what happened all day! We didn’t speak for the whole day except for onstage! Rob disappeared on Thursday night so I took the opportunity to use the washing machine again. I was going to go home on the Friday afternoon so I wanted to get everything sorted and take things home. I decided to change the setting s to a one-hour cycle but 3 hours later, it was still going. I was livid! In the end I just turned the thing off and left things to dry naturally over the weekend.
Friday promised to be a fantastic day! I was so ready to go home, we only had one show, which meant I could leave Crewe around 12.30 and still have a decent afternoon at home. We didn’t speak to each other again on Friday(?!?) , did the show, came home, and off I went on my journey. I got almost half-way home when my phone rang; it was Rob. He had left his coat in the van with his car keys in the pocket. As he had to go home that weekend I had to go back to take the keys back to him. I have never been so livid! I lost 2 hours of home time, and on my second attempt at the m6, I got stuck in a truckload of traffic. My anger levels hit an all-time high, and I never get angry!
But I had a fantastic weekend at home. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to be there so I turned up for dance class on Friday night to some shrieks and lots of hugs which was lovely! Thank you guys! J
I was gutted when I had to go back on Sunday night, but I kept telling myself that there were only two weeks left of the tour! Having Monday afternoon off helped! Tuesday brought with it a full day of rowdy kids. A much needed shopping trip eased my tension at lunchtime, and my faith in humanity was restored! I walked past a lady on my way into Shrewsbury town centre who I thought was just rambling to herself so I walked on in my own little Natalie bubble. I walked back after purchasing my essential Heat magazine (Well, it WAS Tuesday!) and walked past the same lady again. A woman was also following me down the street and I heard the first lady asking her for some money to get something to eat. The second lady replied “Of course, how much do you need?” I couldn’t believe it! Someone actually gave somebody on the street some money!
Wednesday brought another afternoon off which I was very grateful for! I was insanely tired, and had planned to have a quick half an hour nap which turned into a 4-hour sleep in the armchair by the front window! Thursday took us back to Stoke and quite a nice school in the morning. I’ve developed hayfever this year and had started taking some pills for it but came across a nasty side-effect on Thursday morning. I was fine until we started the show but when I stepped in front of the lights, I got a blinding headache. I thought it would pass, but it got worse during the day. I’d stupidly left my painkillers at home so just had to get on with it. I was hoping for a nice small school in the afternoon with maybe about 100 kids, but instead we were faced with a huge school with over 400 angry shouting children. Not amused.
I felt much better when I woke up on Friday morning and took another hayfever pill. Mistake! As soon as we started the show again in the morning, the headache kicked in. Thankfully we were going home that evening so I had access to pain relief! We were in a school in Burton-on-Trent in the morning, and despite my headache, it was a lovely school. It was a school where the majority of the students were Indian. I picked a boy to tell me about the battle of Troy, but he was so far at the back of the long narrow hall, and with his accent and my added headache, I had no idea what he was saying to me! Oh dear! I was hoping for another early finish, as I had another long journey to go to get home. We started the show early, and it went really well, with lovely kids. When the show finished, I went backstage but Rob wasn’t there! Bizarre! He eventually re-appeared and it turned out that he wasn’t feeling well. We packed up and set out on our journey when Rob asked me for some pills to cure his headache. I stopped the van and dug some out and was just about to set off again when he shouted at me to stop the van. I then sat at the side of the road listening to Rob throwing up his insides for about five minutes! Nice!
I dropped him off at Crewe to get his car, and made my way back home. Of course this involved the beautiful m6 and I was stuck for hours entertaining the crowds with my audition pieces for the very next day! I eventually made it home, off I went to dance class, and followed it up with my Friday visit to Jacc’s to watch the DVD of ‘Evolution’! And I have to say it was bloody amazing! As I’ve said before we knew it was a good show but the video just proved how amazing it really was!
Go Starlight! It filled me with a bit more confidence for my audition the next day which was getting closer by the hour...
You never mentioned Justin Bieber.
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